The attendees of the 13th North American Caribou Workshop had a special guest visit them at lunch today. Eyes in the room quickly shifted from the delicious, food-filled buffet tables to a toddler wearing a fuzzy caribou costume complete with antlers, a fluffy bum and tail.

Our shy little caribou, Eric’s two-and-a-half-year-old son North, rose to the task of passing out caribou-shaped cookies to conference participants as a thank-you for their efforts to preserve caribou. The cookies accompanied a news release that delivered a strong message to the Manitoba government—action to help caribou must be taken now.

Five years ago at this same conference, scientists were predicting that this iconic species were going to be permanently gone within the next 100 years. Fast forward to this week; woodland caribou researchers from Quebec and Alberta are now anticipating woodland caribou could disappear from some forests within the next twenty years! This loss is still predicted to occur even if ‘business as usual’ operations in forests are halted – meaning no more habitat loss or fragmentation.

These staggering findings make obvious the urgent action needed from our government in order to protect Manitoba’s herds facing uncertain futures. In fact, Manitoba Conservation has never done a census of caribou ranges in the province. The required data we need to protect our caribou isn’t even available! We are lagging behind other provinces, which have put more resources and research into monitoring and learning about their threatened herds.

Woodland caribou can be described as an ‘indicator species’, meaning their health is directly tied to the wellbeing of their boreal forest habitat. Research presented at the conference this week confirmed that caribou can’t make long-term use of logging areas. They require intact, old-growth forest to thrive.

It is disheartening to know that in Manitoba we continually allow logging and mining and other harmful developments in known caribou ranges. For example, earlier this summer a massive forest fire burnt through 55,000 hectares of forest in northwestern Manitoba which is home to the NAOSAP caribou. The Wilderness Committee hosted a press-conference and called for a moratorium on all development in this range to decrease pressure on the already ravaged forest habitat. Our call for interim protection went unanswered.

When the cookies ran out at the conference today, our sugar-laden, spry young caribou began to gallop around the forest of information posters and researchers. Ironically, he climbed into an empty seat at the Manitoba Conservation booth with a photo backdrop displaying a message about protecting wildlife. If only the province was doing more to protect this iconic species…

 
Caribou cookies received by conference participants